Microsoft is more than serious about entering the personal media player market, willing to take on Apple in a game that others (such as Creative) have lost bitterly. They are currently going to different vendors and music companies demonstrating their product to the potential adopters. This may result in Microsoft launching a music store, but that's an even larger step that has the potential to flounder. If they manage it, however, they'll have another segment of the market in which their particular venue is Microsoft's and Microsoft's alone, from top to bottom, which gives them a lot of leverage in marketing and propagating their product. It will be very interesting to see if MS goes through with this, and how Apple responds.